About a year ago I first heard from Sean, a US native who is currently in Japan. A couple weeks ago he made a donation to our team and wrote us a letter to catch up, which is included along with my response in this post.
Dear IMW guys,
Wow! Seven is looking good! I originally wrote to you nearly a year ago from here in Japan, back when you were just getting started. I’ve been keeping my eye on your progress now and then, and I am very happy to see the fruits of your labors. Was great to see the maiden voyages around the block, as well as the beginnings of the body sculpting. Good job, you should all be proud of yourselves!
As promised before, I said I would come back with a donation. Just sent it out via PayPal, but wish I could spare more than a few Dilithium Crystals. Get a six-pack or pizza on me one of these evenings and toast yourselves on a job well done!
I have one suggestion/request for the website: could you put up a calendar/schedule for what you have going on with the X-Prize events? When, where, deadlines, etc, as well as any itineraries you may have for your construction plans, test phases, and competition participation schedule. It would be awesome to know when all these things will be going on so I (and everyone else) can keep up with your progress.
Again, good job and hats off from Japan,
-Sean Ramsay
Sean,
It’s good to hear from you again and thanks for your support; every Dilithium Crystal counts, if everyone visiting the site were as generous as you we’d have a small fleet of Sevens roaming the Galaxy by now (two counts as a fleet…right?).
As far as posting schedules, I like the idea, in fact I’ve tried to hold myself and the team to them on several occasions…however, when things like time and money are short but engineering problems crop up that require either magic or time or money or all three keep presenting themselves on a regular basis…well that wooshing sound you hear is another deadline flying past. But since sleep is so highly overrated we manage to catch up by starlight and lots of magic elixir, a.k.a. coffee. So the best I can do is tell you where we’re headed, but you already know that: the winners circle some time late this summer or early fall. As far as our circuitous path to get there, well keep watching our site, the pics are updated almost daily; thanks to my beautiful wife. She also Tweets for us as well letting everyone know what’s up for the day. Sorry I can’t give a more detailed blow for blow description of what we’re doing, but hey I’m only human…not to mention we just ran out of COFFEEE. NOOOOOOOOO!
If you’d like to find our more about the event schedule the X PRIZE has posted a schedule of events calendar now that dates are a little more concrete, so if you go to their website or the Progressive Insurance (this wonderful events wonderful sponsor; did that sound like brown nosing? I sure hope so.) site you can see the timetable of events as well.
Other than that, respond to a blog or send me an email by clicking on our info link; I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.
Thanks again Sean for your continued support.
Kevin Smith
Audere Est Facere!